Get out and vote

Online readership started out strong this term, then fell. But it climbed back with this issue. You ended October with more than 23,000 page hits which is close to the record. I think you will likely end the term at an all time high for monthly visits.

But you've been doing a great job with the print edition at the expense of the online edition. And that does a disservice to the readers who come to you over the Internet.

To begin with you have a broken link that is supposed to take readers to a PDF of the front page. It is unattractive and frustrates the reader who wants to check it out. Plus, the fact that that broken link has sat there several weeks tells your reader that you pay no attention to your online site. That's shabby.

Second, there are few if any photos on the Website. Instead, it is crowded headlines. Next term I would like to see the online presentation of stories take top priority.

The stories that fill the Lumberjack week to week are such an improvement over the content in past years that I've been lulled into a sense of complacency.

But lately your competition in the professional press has been covering stories you should have gotten: The Keeling report; the WASC accreditation, and the Dialogue on Race. You also missed out on other important stories: The departure of Professor of the Year Carolyn Ward; the visit and performance of a word-famous marimba player; the visit of a captain of a world-traveling Chinese Junk.


On the upside you gave your readers a good preview of the election and you were able to deliver another important story on tight deadline: That of the death of a student by suicide.

But some of the election preview stories were dry and the layout gray. While the summaries of the city council candidate positions was good, the layout for pages that focused on the local and state propositions was confusing and cluttered.

You also underplayed the story about the new dorms around the soccer field.

You always want your stories to have the Hey Marge effect. That's when someone reads your story in the morning while eating his Special K and yells out "Hey Marge, listen to this!" The story about the new dorms was your Hey Marge! story. But you buried it at the back of the issue.

Finally, beautiful job on the cover and editorial. And nice job of mixing some fun stories with Halloween themes with your election preview stories.